U.S. Supreme Court Issues Major Ruling on Privacy of Cellphones

In what is surely a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled today in Riley v. California that police need a warrant to search the cellphones of people under arrest.

The courts, including here in Colorado, have long allowed warrantless searches in connection with arrests under the auspices of police safety and preservation of evidence. But Chief Justice John Roberts, writing on behalf of the court, reasoned that the amount of data on cellphones protected them from routine inspection.

For more information and a full copy of the decision, click here. This exact issue came up several years ago before Chief Judge James Boyd in an Aspen drug case.